British heritage brand Mulberry is doing some serious backtracking this week, by reversing the hiked up prices of its bags to an (almost) reasonable price point.
Emma Hill, who was creative director of the label until last year, helped rejuvenate Mulberry during her tenure by focusing on its accessories and creating the iconic and hugely popular Alexa and Del Rey bags.
While they were never what might be called cheap – the Alexa retailed at £695 in 2010 – in the era of the 'It bag', being able to purchase some arm candy for less than a grand was something of a coup.
But then Emma Hill left, and Mulberry CEO Bruno Guillan decided that the way to gain the luxury shopper he thought the label needed was to make the cost of the labels accessories more, well, luxury.
No doubt you would have been pretty miffed if you'd saved up your pennies to buy Mulberry's Alexa bag, only to discover the price had been hiked by almost 60% to £1,100. Funnily enough, Guillan's vision didn't go strictly to plan, and he left in March under a cloud of poor sales.
In a bid to boost growth, new CEO Godfrey Davis has announced that from June prices of bags will be returning to somewhere in between the £500 - £700 price bracket.
'Following the recent change in management, we are focussing on achieving sales growth through the reinforcement of our product offering at more affordable prices to meet the expectations of our loyal customers', Davis said in a statement.
However, if you've got your eye on a piece from Cara Delevingne's new Mulberry collection, you'll still have to fork out the original price – a spokesperson for the brand has revealed that it won't be reducing the price of existing products.
Still, if you've always wanted a designer bag, then Mulberry is the place head to. Then again, maybe we've got better things to spend half a grand on.
Picture: Getty
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.